Bison06

99.9% of Bisonvillers aren't Bison. They are Bison fans. Very different. You won't hear any former players either disowning these players for their contribution or defending them.

You played for coach Bohl? You know what goes on behind the scenes? I'd love to learn more about how Coach Bohl handles things, you seem to know a lot about the inner workings of the NDSU football program.

I don't have any problem with anything you are saying, this does and will continue to reflect poorly on NDSU. My only contention with a few posts here is when somebody said "Where were the coaches" and when you said "Why hasn't Gene commented yet"?

If TJ Oshie got arrested for something this week. Would you expect Hakstol to comment?

Once a Bison, always a loser? Hilarious.

Lakes is Lakes. He is extreme and will say just about anything to spin things in a positive NDSU way. I am 100% on board with the Once a Bison, Always a Bison motto. But, players doing doing dumb things after they are out of the program is on them, not Coach Bohl or Gene Taylor. Love it or hate it, there is no denying that Coach Bohl is hired to win football games, not be a parent to these guys, especially after they are done with NDSU.

It could have been handled differently(see better), but today's news shouldn't warrant any comment from anyone in the NDSU athletic department. These guys are former players who haven't been under the supervision of the football team for over a year in 3 of the cases and 6 months in the other.

But that isn't the news of the day Darell. The news today is FORMER PLAYERS didn't show up for community service. No defense for that, but what does that have to do with NDSU winning football games? If I got in trouble today, almost a decade after my time at NDSU, would that reflect poorly on NDSU football? Or just on me? At some point people have to take responsibility for their own actions and that isn't on coach Bohl or anyone else at NDSU. Edit: And why on God's green earth would Gene Taylor comment on this?

Anything for a national title? What do 4 players who are no longer with the program and weren't even on the team at the time of the initial incident have to do with NDSU's ability to win football games?

I would never defend these guys not following through with their punishment. But you don't seriously expect the coaching staff or even NDSU to take responsibility for the actions of young men who are no longer on the team do you?

I am sure everyone in that video is neither underage or involved in UND athletics in any way, shape or form. Looks like a hell of a fun time though.

Take it easy. You must have missed the wink emoticon at the end of my post. Recruits choose schools for a variety of reasons, football isn't always even the biggest reason. Winning brings plenty of goodwill, but it isn't everything. A great example of this is something I've posted here before. UND won the 2001 national championship. 2002 recruiting classes in the state of ND, NDSU crushed UND for the top ND players. Mollberg looks to be a solid player, would have loved to see him in a Bison uniform.

Boy is Mollberg going to be dissappointed if that is the case. He passed up a chance to play at NDSU to avoid competition and now here he is in a competition at UND.

Actually I think it's more like "stay here this summer, and in January put one of these around your finger".

Are scholarship players required to stay in GF or is it a choice?

Ahh, now I see what you mean. That actually makes sense. Buy then you might have some competition issues with the other sports that "basketball" school sponsors. In that situation you might even have schools dropping all sports except basketball. Then we've completely dropped the notion of student-athlete and shown that college sports are really all about the money. Big surprise right?

What do you mean by basketball only? Under your scenario, you are either a part of the NCAA or you are a member of one of the conferences seceding from the NCAA. I don't see any gray area. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are proposing.

No I get your point, but he is saying that teams outside the conferences that are now operating outside the NCAA would be allowed to play in this tournament. ie Wichita St, Gonzaga, Butler, insert any mid major basketball program. Under the proposal of you and others, those teams would still be members of the NCAA and still subject to any rule the NCAA imposes. Why would the NCAA, after just losing some of it's best members, turn around and "let" the members it still has contribute to the success of their new competitor?

That may be so, I think the tournament has such a large following BECAUSE of those smaller schools, you think it has large rating despite the smaller schools. Agree to disagree. I do see the larger schools splitting into a different division, just not outside of the NCAA.

You think the NCAA would allow it's members to play in a new tournament outside the NCAA and still keep good standing with the NCAA in their other sports? I'm not so sure about that. If Wichita, Gonzaga and Marquette aren't a part of these new conferences in all sports, I don't see why the NCAA would just 'let' them play in a post season tournament other than thier own.

Never said they did, but viewers do. I just think the tournament loses a lot of it's luster if there isn't the pageantry and the drama that upsets make. I don't speak for everyone of course, but I can say without a doubt that my interest in that tournament would be significantly less if you didn't have 15 vs. 2 and 14 vs. 3 type matchups. Some of the best story lines of ALL TIME are due to the format of the tournament. It would take viewers a long time to accept a tournament made up exclusively of SEC, B1G, BIG East, Pac 10 and Big 12 schools.

I am not saying they won't have their own division, I am just saying I don't see it very likely to be separate from the NCAA because of the scheduling issues I posted about earlier and the NCAA basketball tournament. I am sure there are thousands of other things the NCAA might bring up if these schools wanted to part ways with the NCAA. You really think the NCAA is going to allow their member schools to count games with the "big schools" toward bowl eligibility if they are no longer part of their program? Think of the scheduling issues for those big schools when they are all fighting each other for OOC home games in football. The big schools in a way need the smaller schools, not as much as the small schools need the big schools, but you get my point I think.

I am not so sure about that. Basketball is very different than football, people don't just want to see the big schools when March rolls around, they want to see the David vs. Goliath matchups. I don't think it's as simple in basketball as it is in football. We'll see, I just see the NCAA basketball tournament as a major bargaining chip to make sure the big boys don't leave the NCAA.

They would never want to not be associated with the NCAA in basketball. There is no way to match the excitement of the NCAA tournament with the possibility of the "smaller schools" upsetting big schools. From my perspective, the NCAA has a lot more negotiating power than you all are saying. They could hold these schools hostage for the NCAA tournament if they wanted. I don't see the NCAA letting these schools out without making them pay for it BIG TIME. In the end, a separate division within the NCAA is the only viable option for them, IMO. The NCAA just has too much they can take away from these larger schools.

Nice write up and I actually see this exact thing happening the way many of you guys do. I will say that you are missing one key bargaining chip that the NCAA would have. They could very easily ban their member schools from playing this new division if those "big schools" don't end things amicably with the NCAA. That would lead to many, many problems for the bigger schools IMO. Fighting for OOC home games would be an absolute mess without some of these smaller schools looking for a pay day away game. Other than that I think your assessment is spot on.